On Tuesday, the IOC Executive Board responded to the McLaren report and listed provisional measures for international sports federations moving forward. Fortunately for FIS and the IBU, they're not on the same timeline as summer sports, and will convene at a meeting in just over two weeks in Rio.
“There needs to be an investigation by WADA,” International Ski Federation (FIS) Secretary General Sarah Lewis told FasterSkier in a phone interview on Monday. “FIS totally supports it and we have already expressed that anything we can provide, we will do. And it needs to be done [quickly], but carefully.”
After acquiring rights to most all of the FIS World Cup events this season, NBCUniversal plans to stream cross-country and nordic-combined World Cups live through its NBC Sports Live Extra platform. And the Tour de Ski is scheduled to be broadcast on TV via the Universal HD channel.
Of all the races to go by the wayside in recent years, the 30/50 k is often missed by longtime fans of the cross-country World Cup. Athletes miss it too, and at the annual International Ski Federation (FIS) Calendar Conference this week in Dubrovnik, Croatia, one of the biggest items on athlete representative Kikkan Randall’s agenda is to propose its return.
When Andrus Veerpalu tested positive for recombinant human grown hormone in both his A and B samples in the winter of 2011, FIS used a peer-reviewed, reliable test to detect the abnormalities and seemed to have a slam-dunk case. In a highly unusual appeals case that surprised scientists and anti-doping administrators alike, the Court of Arbitration for Sport found that WADA had made missteps in setting detection limits. Here's how Veerpalu won a case even though CAS was sure he was guilty.
After nine months of deliberation, the Court of Arbitration for Sport announced on Tuesday that it decided to uphold Estonian cross-country skier Andrus Veerpalu's appeal and overturned the three-year competition ban the International Ski Federation originally imposed on him in August of 2011 for testing positive for human growth hormone. The Panel cited lack of confidence in FIS's standard of proof.
Ever wonder who’s behind the FIS Cross-Country Twitter feed? This season, that would be Jeff Ellis. About two weeks ago, Ellis started his new job as FIS Cross-Country Marketing Support, a job which involves interviewing his wife, Kikkan Randall.
All American Birkebeiner coverage is brought to you through the generous support of SkiErg. Dr. Ian Duncan’s first phone call to Vegard Ulvang two years ago met a little dead air. It wasn’t that Ulvang, the executive director of the International Ski Federation’s cross-country committee, didn’t want to talk. He couldn’t at the time. The former Norwegian cross-country skiing superstar had the Olympics to tend to. Last summer, Duncan, a world-renowned National Multiple Sclerosis Society researcher...
Two skiers have received more than $5,000 in overdue prize money owed to them after the disqualification of a Russian skier for doping in 2009. This spring, both Finland’s Sami Jauhojaervi and the Czech Republic’s Lukas Bauer confirmed to FasterSkier that they had each received some 2,200 Swiss francs apiece from the International Ski Federation (FIS), for their performances in the 2009 edition of the Tour de Ski. Jauhojaervi and Bauer finished 10th and 11th,...
Kikkan Randall is in for a long week. With the news that the Polish Ski Association (PSA) plans to appeal Justyna Kowalczyk’s relegation in the Sunday’s women’s sprint final in Davos—which elevated Randall to third place—the Alaskan could be waiting until late this coming week to find out whether she gets to keep her podium finish, and the $5,000 that goes with it. According to International Ski Federation (FIS) rules, the PSA can take up...
The Russian Ski Association (FLGR) has received high praise over the last two months for its work to combat performance-enhancing drug use. After being fined more than $180,000 this spring, the country escaped a second round of penalties at meetings of the International Ski Federation (FIS) in early November, thanks to its anti-doping efforts—which included changes in officials and coaches affiliated with scandals. “We know they are on the right track,” Gian Franco Kasper, the...
Astrid Jacobsen (NOR), sprint world champion in 2007 in Sapporo has a difficult period behind her with several injuries in the past couple of years. Now she seems to be on the right track for Oslo 2011. For the 23-year-old Norwegian, the upcoming World Championships in Oslo will be something special as it is her real home championships – she lives in Oslo. On her Road to Oslo 2011, Astrid Jacobsen took some time and...
The International Ski Federation (FIS) will consider further sanctions against the Russian Ski Association this weekend at its autumn council meetings in Oberhofen, Switzerland. After withholding some $185,000 in funding from the Russians at its June meetings in response to a string of anti-doping rules violations, FIS officials will now consider whether to levy additional fines or even strip the country’s membership rights—though such measures are unlikely, according to Luke Bodensteiner, the U.S. Ski and...
From 22nd to 24th October, FIS organized a seminar for FIS Cross- Country Technical Delegates of OPA countries in Ramsau. More than sixty participants from eleven nations gathered to update their knowledge of competition rules and event organization. Participants from traditional OPA alpine countries were accompanied by representatives of Great Britain, Japan, Mongolia and Romania. Four candidates for Technical Delegate passed the exam successfully and many new participants were registered as candidates. On Saturday evening,...
For cross-country ski fans, a sprint in Moscow’s Red Square might sound too good to be true. But it just might happen next winter. According to Jurg Capol, the cross-country race director at the International Ski Federation (FIS), two new city sprints, in Milan and Moscow, are on the preliminary World Cup calendar for the 2011-2012 season. And while the exact location of the Moscow event hasn’t been decided, there’s a chance that cross-country skiing...
A second athlete has not been paid more than $2,000 U.S. dollars owed to him under International Ski Federation (FIS) rules. When Russian cross-country skier Evgeni Dementiev was suspended for doping in 2009, FIS rules called for the redistribution of 4,375 Swiss francs in prize money that he won at that year’s edition of the Tour de Ski, after testing positive for performance-enhancing drug use. But in an e-mail to FasterSkier, Czech skier Lukas Bauer,...
FIS Cross-Country News: The end of October is coming near. How would you summarize your off-season preparation? Kikkan Randall: It has been a very good season of preparation although quite different from the previous years. I did a bit more traveling which gave me the advantage of some new training partners in Europe and Canada, and overall it was very beneficial to see and do some different things. Because of more travel the summer and...
Hidden away 50 pages into the International Ski Federation’s (FIS’s) anti-doping rules is a policy that has received little publicity in the charged debate surrounding performance-enhancing drug use. “As a condition of regaining eligibility after being found to have committed an anti-doping rule violation,” it reads, “[an] Athlete must first repay all prize money forfeited.” After the 2009 Tour de Ski, Finland’s Sami Jauhojaervi stood to benefit from the application of that rule. In that race,...
Russian media are reporting that former Olympic champion Yevgeny Dementiev intends to return to skiing for the 2011-2012 season, after serving a two-year ban for a positive drug test. Dementiev, 27, had retired after his sample from the Tour de Ski in January, 2009, turned up traces of the blood-boosting drug EPO. But
